RSS
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
From The Dispatch:
A Downtown gem when it opened in 1989, the forlorn mall will be torn down by summer
BY MARLA MATZER ROSE AND MIKE PRAMIKColumbus City Center is coming down, and Downtown as we know it is about to change. This summer, nearly 20 years after City Center opened as the shining star of central Ohio’s retail universe, the obsolete and nearly abandoned mall will be demolished. It is to be replaced by an urban park and, within several years, a collection of buildings that will contain residences, offices, restaurants and shops.
The city has dubbed the $165 million project Columbus Commons. It is seeking federal stimulus money to pay for the mall demolition and development of the park, which city officials expect to start this summer and complete within 18 months. The remainder of the project will take shape over the next five to 10 years, as the market dictates.
All that will be left are the parking garage, underground parking and the entryway to the mall off State Street.
I am so HAPPY to see this announcement, it is big progress. That empty building is a huge energy drain. I am glad to hear the parking garages are staying. It is seems reasonable to salavage some of the functionality of the structure. Yes, I have many fond memories of City Center, when we got married in 1990, it was THE hot spot! My wedding gown was from Jacobson’s and we registered at Marshall-Fields, Jacobsons and Lazarus. We even received a couple nice gifts from Henri Bendels. Cinnabon was our tradition and I will always think of our engagement time when I smell that cinnamon treat. Hubby worked for NBBJ (downtown at the time) and I worked for the Galbreath Company (in the Borden Building), it was a big deal when City Center opened, the first upscale shopping experience. All that said, it was sad to see something so prominent fall to disarray so quickly. I can’t say it was doomed to fail, but it did not evolve to stay current. Tuttle, Polaris, Easton were part of the problem, but not entirely. None of those places had the downtown energy that made CC special.
Things change, now instead of a shopping shortage, the current Columbus crisis is an epidemic of inactivity. Studies show people in bigger cities are more active (healthy) because they walk as part of the commute. I hope creating welcoming green spaces will encourage people to get out and move. ‘Columbus Commons’ is a good name, maybe they can incorporate a skating area for winter time. I would love to see shops around the commons that support a healthy lifestyle, like bikes, running/walking shoes and a juice place. I’d like to see outdoor tai chi, fitness and yoga classes on the commons. I am hopeful… Great news indeed.
jody, excellent ideas …… I would love an influx of eco-friendly/healthy stores and no better spot than around a park. You put those stores around this and I will put my name on the top of the list of people to live there (well I prob. will for the park alone).
another image of the site from nbc4i:
From what i see here I’m really happy with the ‘urbanness’ of the end product. Frankly, it looks hot.
I love that there’s a lot of positive feedback about the park idea. I think the greenspace downtown is a fabulous idea. I’m just concerned about how it will be maintained. Currently, the proposed businesses don’t actually exist. Also, I think this will remain public, rather than privately owned (I could be wrong, but privitization may raise other concerns from folks who like the idea of the park). I would like to see mandated support of the park from the businesses built on the site. I don’t want to sound too negative, because I think that just turns folks off. However, the reality is that many homes and businesses benefit immensely from Goodale, but do not support it. There is some support, but it’s surprisingly few (and some of the biggest companies give nothing). Just because it is in their interest to support it, does not mean that folks will do it. When confronted with issues or desires for improvements in parks, we are much more likely to hear “When is someone going to do something about this?” than “I’m here, with money or man-hours, how can I help?”
I’m wishing this the best. It sounds great, definitely better than CC in it’s current state, and I definitely LOVE the park in the city. Just wanted to voice the concerns about it’s maintenance. Maybe it will serve as a shining example of business/corporate involvement in the parks nearby, and make others jump in with support for other parks, too. That would be excellent!
btw, i love the comments on nbc4′s website …… I really dont think people that stupid deserve the right to vote.
This makes absolute sense. I remember posting this on CU a while back (about a year) that I’d seen men taking an inventory of all of the fixtures in the mall. Hopefully they offer it all at auction rather than just plowing it into the hole.
I’m excited. I love the idea of a park.
Lazyfish,
I didn’t get the impression that the city would actually own the new buildings to go up on the site. I would assume that the private sector will still design, construct, own, and operate the new buildings while the city will handle the park.
would love to attend that auction….
all that plate glass. i could do my roof top addition!
No kidding Chris! That inch thick storefront stuff would make an awesome room – providing it could get there in one piece.
“February 1977: Capitol South Community Urban Redevelopment Corp. unveils a plan for the area south of the Statehouse that includes a shopping mall along with four new office buildings, a 400-room hotel, four apartment buildings, a performing arts center and a public pavilion.”
From a timeline in the Dispatch.
I had no idea. Had they followed through on the other 5 things, CC might have been viable.
A.
I’m getting way ahead of myself here, but I think the proximity to the park would make me more likely to move downtown. I presently live near Goodale and wouldn’t move beyond walking distance to it (I have dogs), but a nice park downtown would certainly make it much more attractive.
^ I believe the Hyatt and adjacent office building were built as a park of the Cap South project as well as the office building at 3rd and Town.
I think this is a good plan with plenty of flexibility.
One step closer to the dream of taking my urban chickens on the streetcar and going downtown for some fresh air and community grazing.
This is excellent news. The current amount of greenspace downtown is pathetic. Coleman FTW
This could be great, but it’s all in the execution. For the park I suggest a nice fountain, playground, benches, chess tables, and gazebos. In one of the renderings it looks like there’s a little amphitheater, but isn’t one also planned just a few blocks west along the river? In this case I think the city will have to pick and choose just one location.
For the second phase it looks as though after the park is built that new roads are going to be introduced and cut out much of the park with the addition of new buildings leaving just a small patch of grass. No, Columbus, no! This is what needs to be done if buildings are to be incorporated and are going to shrink the park. No new roads. These buildings should interact directly with the park. Why would you create gaps to separate the park from businesses when you don’t have to. The buildings are going to be built on a single, uninterrupted park, reducing it by over half its original size. Adding roads through it would shrink the park even more so. It’s just a bad idea. See? What would you guys do without me? I’ll be pushing this point to the moon, so when you guys are able to get up from a game of chess or a bench in front of the fountain to walk over to an outdoor patio or shop right on the edge of the park without having to cross the street, you can thank me.
In the ideal, I have to agree with Veracity that it would have been best to attempt to salvage some of the existing structure for reuse– it is a lot of building to just throw away; however, I understand that the reality is there may be money for demo, but likely won’t be enough to cover a rehab of that scale. So overall I endorse the plan… I think we really do need a park there… there really isn’t much greenspace downtown. I can see this being a much more active area than greenspace along the river, which is kind of isolated. And I can forsee that, in time, the space may lend itself to a variety of new uses.
I agree that I’d like to see some of the structure re-used, but we all know how it goes once whoever in control is set on demolition.
What about reusing the ‘pieces’ of the structure? ex. There is prob. going to be a ton of reusable steal coming out of this. Does the final cost take into count the money they’d get back for this? If not, could that steal be used to speed up phase 2?
Walker … there are some more questions for you.
I don’t understand why the demo is to cost so much. A building that age doesn’t have asbestos- which generally costs more to remove than the actual tearing down in many cases. All of that steel will be recycled, along with the granite floors, concrete, brick, etc recycled into aggregate. The only thing I can guess is that it will be a tedious and slow demo similar to the bridge- so as not to disrupt the basement parking garage, thus the hefty price.
To answer your question about the steel Surber. Demo contracts are generally set up so that the contractor physically owns the building and all of its contents.